SKEMA Digital Marketing

Facebook: afraid to be disliked?

Written by Elena Arkhangelskaya and Pontus Tjernberg

When scrolling the news feed on Facebook, you might not feel like always pressing the like button under posts. You’d show that you dislike some certain things rather than actually like them. Clearly, the like button is confusing from time to time, since you cannot like any sad or horrifying events in reality. Is there any alternative to the like button out there?

For that reason, more and more Facebook users have asked to create a dislike button for many years already. One week ago Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced that they were actually working on an alternative simple social interaction and would go into a testing phase soon.

So is it really happening?

After this news some blogs wrote about possible implications of the dislike button for marketers. In Mobile Marketer several benefits of the dislike button were discussed. First, it may enable to collect more useful data about consumers and find out whether the content is relevant or interesting. Consequently, it may be easier for marketers to decide, which changes should be made. Moreover, advertising may become more personalised according to users’ preferences. For instance, should a consumer dislike any brand, its competitor may benefit from it and be more precise when targeting potential consumers. 

All in all, with such a new tool to express opinions, customers will definitely become more responsive to what a company does. In return, they may become more demanding and expect that companies’ reaction online will be fast and adequate, what creates more pressure. All of them, who don’t want to fall behind, have to be ready to improve their social media marketing fast and effectively.

Image source: http://www.zachandjody.com/blog/tuesday-tips-tricks-the-10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-facebook/13362/ 

However, is it the dislike button, which is going to shape social media marketing on Facebook? 

Nobody can say for sure so far.

According to Mark Zuckerberg, he doesn’t seem to be excited about the idea of voting for or against any posts, thus creating a ground for negative emotions and disputes on Facebook.

In his announcement he didn’t mention a name of a button, which the Facebook team is currently working on. Nevertheless, it becomes clear that they would like to introduce a tool with which people can express their empathy towards any subject.

Some marketers believe that this button won’t imply any useful information for brands, because it is designed to express sorrow. “Do you know many cases where people feel motivated to express empathy for a brand?” – says Nate Elliott from Forrester Research. However, if a company deals with some real issues, it may be quite important also from a marketing point of view to see if companies’ loyal customers and other online audience support the company or not and how this issue may influence the consumer behaviour.

The new button will be definitely a new step in the social media marketing. Any feedback given by a customer towards brand’s content may be useful and provide marketers with more insights. Especially if the information is negative and reasonable, marketers should grasp the opportunity and make improvements, if it’s possible.

Last but not least, Nate Elliott believes that if Facebook creates other simple emotions buttons (for example, “love”, ”respect”, etc.) after the successful launch of the empathy button, then these tools will create a wider variety of relationships between brands and consumers. It would allow to market products or services in a customized way depending on the kind of relationship with the brand.

What do you think, which button could make a revolution in the social media marketing?

Source: "Will Facebook’s “Empathy” Button Be Good News For Marketers?" by Martin Beck